This week the second round of the Iranian parliamentary elections was
held. The opposition websites have reported extensive irregularities, such as the use of government funds to
run campaigns, while state media praised the massive turn-out and
Keyhan newspaper observed that 20,000 photos were taken of
Ayatollah Khamenei while he was casting his vote.

A cartoon
on the pro-government Fars News website portrays the two election
rounds as knockout blows to the US.

The opposition site, Rah-e
Sabz [Green Path] described the second round as an “unfair, dim,
and staged.”

Mehr News Agency in Iran reports
that one of its journalists recently submitted a legal question to the
Islamic Republic Leader’s office asking about his religious decree on
using anti-filter software for “people whose job requires them to use
filtered websites using anti-filter software". Ayatollah Khamanei’s
one-sentence response apparently dismissed the use of anti-filter
software for anyone, “In general, the use of anti-filter [software] is
subject to the laws and regulations of the Islamic Republic and
violating laws is not permissible".

Press Freedom Day in One of the “Biggest Prisons for
Journalists”

Press Freedom Day passed with little attention in Iran.

In our last round-up, we reported on a recent list published by
Iranian expatriate journalist and activist Masih Alinejad of 108
journalists who have been officially arrested since 2009 in Iran. On
this year’s Press Freedom Day, Reporters without Borders stated:

The Islamic Republic of Iran has both Supreme Leader
Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad [as predators of freedom of
information], who – despite their rivalry – agree on gagging the
media. Iran still ranks with Eritrea, China, Turkey and Syria as one
of the world’s biggest prisons for journalists.

On the same occasion, the incarcerated journalist, Masood Bastani, wrote
from Rajaie Shahr prison:

“I wish others too thought like we do that elsewhere
members of this sphere-shaped village of ours have passed the “freedom
of expression” stage and are now in search of newer horizons for their
own people and we are ‘repeating the cycle of night and the day, and
yet...’ [ "shab raa o rooz raa dor mikonim va hanooz raa" Ed not:
Please forgive our awkward translation of the line from the poem by Ahmad Shamlou.]”

The Defenders of Human Rights Center, founded by Shirin Ebadi, published
the news of an appeal by a group of Nobel Peace Laureates demanding
the release of human rights activist, Narges Mohamadi, who was
recently sentenced to six years in prison in Iran. The signatories
include Mikhail Gorbachev, Dalai Lama, and Lech Walesa.

In addition to the letter, a total of 311 Iranian activists and civil
and cultural entities have demanded the release of Narges Mohamadi in
their open
letter to Ahmad Shaheed, the United Nations Special Human Rights Rapporteur
on Iran.

On 4 May, after the sentencing of a number of human rights defenders
in Iran to long prison terms, independent human rights experts
affiliated with the United Nations released a statement of concern.
The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic
Republic of Iran, Ahmad Shaheed, said:

The conviction and extremely harsh sentencing of human
rights defenders is an indication of mounting repression against the
legitimate activities of human rights defenders and represents a
serious setback for the protection of human rights in Iran.

Who Me? Repressing Human Rights Defenders?

The same day the statement was released, human rights lawyer Mohammad
Ali Dadkhah was sentenced to nine years in prison for “membership of
an association [the Center for Human Rights Defenders] seeking the
soft overthrow of the government” and “spreading propaganda against
the system through interviews with foreign media".

Dadkhah has defended a number of activists and gained international
attention for defending the Christian pastor, Youcef
Naderkhani, who faces execution for converting from Islam.

He told the Guardian, "I was in a court in Tehran defending one of my clients, Davoud Arjangi, a jailed political activist on death row when the judge told me that my own sentence has been approved and I will be shortly
summoned to jail to serve the nine-year sentence."

Ann Harrison, Amnesty
International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North
Africa, stated, “Mohammad Ali Dadkhah’s only crime is to have defended
the rights of others. He should not even have been on trial in the
first place and his sentence should be quashed immediately".

Narges Mohamadi’s Husband: “My children Must Know Why Their
Mother is in Prison.”

Taghi Rahmani, Narges Mohamadi’s husband, participated
in an interview with Zanan TV, an online platform dedicated to Iranian
women’s issues. The political activist and former prisoner of
conscience now in exile, stated that his main concern was their
children, and that he wants them to know why their mother had to go to
prison: “Narges is behind bars for defending the rights of children
their age.”

Teenager Imprisoned for Protesting Drying of Lake

An 18-year-old in Iran has been arrested
and sentenced to one year in prison for having participated in a
demonstration demanding government action to prevent the drying of
Lake Urmia. Security forces captured Sahand Nobakht in Miandoab of
Western Azerbaijan Province.

Mortazavi’s Right Hand Arrested

The former Tehran Deputy Prosecutor under Saeed Mortazavi, Ali Akbar
Heydarifard, has been arrested. Many know
Heydarifard as the “walking stick” of Mortazavi, the notorious figure
behind Kahrizak
disaster, who is also known as “The Butcher of the Press” for his
key role in shutting down the Iranian media.

Ali Akbar Heydarifard was
arrested on the charge of disrupting public order, after he shot in
the air to intimidate people who confronted him for not waiting in
line at a gas station in Isfahan.

Save Our Theatre

Almost 400 people active in the theatre community sent a letter
to the mayor of Tehran, Mohammad-Bagher
Qalibaf, asking for help to save an historic theater/center for
the arts in Tehran. This is their second plea for the preservation of
the building and support for the arts.

University Students Uni-Formed

Last week the dean of Al-Zahra girls’ university in
Tehran announced
that a student uniform brand will soon be launched in cooperation with
the University of Tehran to preserve students’ Iranian-Islamic
identity. According to the repot, the brand is going to be named
“Parnian".

Iranian Netizens Protest Omission of Persian Gulf from Google
Maps

Last week Google omitted
the name of Persian Gulf from its Google Maps Service.
The act raised protests among Iranian netizens both inside
and outside the country. This Facebook
group is an example. A representative of Google has told
the BBC that his company “did not name every place in the world.”
When asked to cite other instances, the Google representative “was
unable to provide an example of a similar case of a missing landmark".

Iranian Middle Class Shrinks

Prices are still rising in Iran “on a weekly basis” according an
interview published on The Etemad. The interviewee, Dr. Hossein
Raghfar, contests official figures and says he is “extremely
disappointed with the official
inflation rates announced by the government".

Raghfar adds: “In my opinion the inflation rate
during the current Persian year has been above 55%.” Dr. Raghfar
points to an alarming figure he presents as “the absolute poverty
line” for Iranian major cities, including Tehran. “Apparently the
absolute poverty line in Tehran for a family of five people, with
three children studying at different levels, is a minimum of one and a
half million Tomans, [almost $830]” The minimum
wage has been set at around $250 in Iran.

Raghfar warns that the current crisis within Iranian society
has led to the shrinking of the middle class and “transferring of a
large part of this social group into the lower [economic] class".

Noble Man in Orange

Dariush
Mehrjooyi the veteran director of the Iranian cinema and the
creator of the now-classic “The
Cow” praised Ahmad Rabani, whose story appeared in our previous
weekly roundup. Speaking at a ceremony held in Tehran, Dariush
Mehrjooyi said, “At such times when everyone is facing economic
hardship in Iran and this man does not have a big income, what he did
was absolutely admirable. He is the noble man in orange.”

In Iran municipal sweepers dress in orange, which is co-incidentally also
the title of Mr. Mehrjooyi’s recent movie “Orange
Dressed”: